Dead sea lion pups are being discovered off the coast of California. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz are now trying to determine the cause. In the past few weeks, they say they have found over 250 dead sea lion cubs on Ano Nuevo Island. It’s been called an unusual mortality event.” It’s almost like it’s raining sea lion pups, and they’re separated by gulls and scrubs, so it’s a bit of a battlefield almost. It’s a bit grim,” said UCSC graduate student George Coke. The dead babies are believed to have been aborted early. Most have reached almost full term as the pupping season begins in June. In normal years, the island sees about 700 cubs born with only about 1 or 2 aborted, so finding nearly 300 dead and counting is extremely unusual, researchers say. “The ocean is changing, it’s changing in ways that we don’t fully understand,” said Director of the Institute of Marine Sciences for UCSC, Dr. Daniel Costa.Dr. Daniel Costa and his students at UCSC have collected the carcasses of the pups for testing and are working to determine the cause.” There are fewer fish overall, and one guess is that food availability has dwindled, California’s sea bass population or a high high level, so they’re already at a point where you’ve maxed out,” said Costa.Costa. and his team is using satellite tracking to better understand sea lion behavior The graphic shows some sea lions traveling as far as Baja California.”We’ve been tracking sea lions for about six years in total. In the past, we have I’ve never seen that kind of movement, so it makes me think they’re looking for food,” Costa said. In addition to the effects of climate change, UCSC researchers are examining other causes such as bird flu or pesticides. “Right now, it’s doing more research, really keeping a watchful eye on the behaviors. We’re seeing how things are changing because this is evolving rapidly,” Colaco said. At this point, this is believed to be widespread, with similar phenomena. West Coast.”I think nature has to heal in this case,” Costa said. Scientists say that although many sea lions have been found dead, it is not yet extremely devastating – but if this continues for the next few years, it could be a real problem.
Dead sea lion pups are being discovered off the coast of California. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz are now trying to find out the cause.
In recent weeks, they say they have found over 250 dead sea lion cubs on Ano Nuevo Island. It has been called an unusual mortality event.
“It’s almost like it’s raining sea lion pups, and they’re being separated by gulls and ospreys, so it’s almost a battlefield. It’s a little grim,” said UCSC graduate student George Colaco.
The dead babies are believed to have been aborted early. Most have reached almost full term as the pupping season begins in June.
In normal years, the island sees about 700 cubs born with only about 1 or 2 aborted, so finding nearly 300 dead and counting is extremely unusual, researchers say.
“The ocean is changing, it’s changing in ways that we don’t fully understand,” said Director of the Institute of Marine Sciences for UCSC, Dr. Daniel Costa.
Dr. Daniel Costa and his students at UCSC have collected the carcasses of the puppies for testing and are working to determine the cause.
“My best guess is that we’re coming off an El Niño event. That means the food ties are down there, less food, there’s less fish overall. My best guess, and it’s a guess , is that the availability of food is low. , the population of the sea in California or an extremely high level, so they are already at a point where you have maxed out a little bit,” Costa said.
Costa and his team are using satellite tracking to better understand sea lion behavior The graphic shows that some sea lions are traveling to Baja California.
“We’ve been tracking sea lions for about six years in total. In the past, we’ve never seen such movement that makes me think they’re looking for food,” Costa said.
In addition to the effects of climate change, UCSC researchers are looking for other causes such as bird flu or pesticides.
“Right now, it’s doing more research, really keeping a watchful eye on behaviors. We’re seeing how things are changing because this is evolving rapidly,” Colaco said.
At this point, this is believed to be widespread, with similar phenomena seen throughout the West Coast.
“I think nature should heal in this case,” said Costa.
Scientists say that although many sea lions have been found dead, it is not yet extremely devastating – but if this continues for the next few years, it could be a real problem.
#Large #number #dead #sea #lions #California #coast #UCSC #scientists #investigate
Image Source : www.ksbw.com